Live Simply So others can Simply Live

Ok, so I must apologize about the lack of posts here on the site. Writing about the tiny house has not been a priority for me recently due to the crazy way that life tends to unfold.

I won’t bore you with the details, but it involved time out, travel, birthdays, spring time, full time work, re-committing to my passion of electronic music production and moving in to the tiny house.

So, as you’re here for the tiny house, I’ll just talk about that.

Moving in

April 21st 2017 was the official moving in date, but I was to move in alone, well, with the cat. But my wife had other commitments with work and was to spend some time away.

This was actually a great experience; being able to enjoy the house alone so that I could really feel into the energy of the house and have the time to soak in my personal achievements in building it. Being able to really take time to appreciate my own work was such a blessing instead of rushing into ‘life’.

I took it very slowly after moving in and didn’t feel rushed to complete the house as it was only my comfort levels that was dictating the pace of completion. When there’s someone else to consider, it’s very easy to place more strict pressures on yourself to make sure the other is comfortable too. So, I was able to sit back a little in an uncompleted place without feeling too guilty.

The first night was amazing. There is an inexplicable satisfaction falling asleep in a home that you’ve built with your own hands. So after a few awesome nights sleep I started to feel into what the home needed, to make it more functional.

Customizing the details

Composting Toilet

The first thing I needed to do was make sure the composting toilet was working and set up correctly. I managed to get this going pretty quickly, but will save you the details for another blog post in the future.

Kitchen

The first obvious requirement was kitchen cabinetry so that I had somewhere to store food and kitchen utensils. So I quickly designed and threw together some simple shelving.

After setting this up, I needed to get a fridge. Instead of spending forever searching for the perfect size to fit the space, I just grabbed a small fridge from Canadian tire that would get me by for now. It’s very small, but so far, even after being joined by my wife, it is holding up to the task.

Doors for storage

I was beginning to tire of seeing all my stuff in the storage stairs, so used some left over cedar to build some doors. It was the first time i used a laminating technique to create anything and it was surprisingly simple. The finished product is very unique and maintains an awesome rustic feel in my opinion. Watch out for splinters though!

The doors are finished with small magnets to hold the door as closed.

I’ve added little driftwood handles since this was taken

Flooring

After the kitchen was feeling more completed, I wanted to get the floor finished. The ‘choosing’ is the hardest part, but in the interests of ease, I decided to order the cork laminate HDF flooring planks from Home Depot. After waiting so long to make the decision, they were out of stock, so a couple of weeks wait was needed. After eventually receiving the flooring, I needed to wait for the flooring to acclimatize to the house before fitting them.

I had scored some free cork underlayment from a friend too, which was going to add even more insulation to the floor and also some acoustic dampening qualities. As this was a floating click type floor, I didn’t need to use any toxic glue, even though there’s likely a chunk of toxicity in the HDF. This would make fitting a lot easier, quicker and cleaner.

I chose to fit the floor on a day off, but wasn’t able to start until after lunch,. It took me until 2am to complete the floor, which was made all the more tricky as I had to remove all the cabinetry that I had installed a couple of weeks prior. To add even more complication to this, it was raining outside, so I had no where to put all this cabinetry other than in the room in which I was fitting them floor. This made it incredibly tight and crowded in the tiny house, not recommended for anyone with claustrophobia!

Fitting the floor made a huge difference to the space though and I’m glad I had got that task out the way.

Seating/Storage

Whilst I had seating and storage, the boxes were not complete and I needed to dress them up with ‘siding’ and cushions. I was gifted some old reclaimed wood that was destined for the fire pit and used this to make the seating look cool, The foam cushions are 5″ thick and were custom ordered from a foam specialist and upholsterer. They work great, albeit, I ordered the slightly wrong length on one of them.

Rather than re-order the cushions, I shortened one of the benches! The beauty of custom built furniture. Haha.

It actually worked out perfectly as one of the benches covered a power outlet, so after shortening it I could now access this power outlet.

Dining Table & Second Seat

It’s easy to live alone without a dining table, but as I was soon to be joined by my wife, I needed a quick dining table, so after grabbing a nice slab of cedar, I created some heavy duty brackets and cut the slab to size. I only got around to sanding and removing the bark yesterday, but it needs a little more work and oiling.

The bottom step of the stairs doubles as seat for the dining table, but i needed a second spot to sit. After a few rough sketches in the sketch pad, I came up with a simple structure that would not only be a second seat, but double as a cat litter tray storage spot. Awesome! Multi purpose items are key in a tiny house.

More to come

After a month alone with just the cat for company I was joined by my wife. Thankfully she is loving the new space and whilst there’s still some more additions to make, we are very comfortable in the house. I’m now working full time and as such, only have the weekends to focus on improvements, but knowing that the big stuff is out the way, makes the future a lot lighter and much more attainable.

So what’s left to do?

Oil the window sills

Instal window screens

Install the bathroom sink and tap

Install a bathroom light

Shape, sand and oil the dining table

Create some light fitments

Design and build a ladder to the second loft

Fit a light into the 2nd loft

Add doors to the kitchen cabinets

Finish the inside of the main door

Install the wood stove

So, as you can see there’s no more time for me to be writing, especially because I’m expecting a visitor on Wednesday: Bryce from Living big in a Tiny House is coming to film our home. This is super exciting as he was the initial inspiration for me to begin this build. If all goes well and we get something worth posting, we will show you the finished result as soon as it’s ready.